Slumming and the Bourgeoisie

I suppose I'm as guilty as any middle-class white boy trying to kick it with the poor little brown children.  Trying to pretend that I can appreciate the "high brow" culture that I was raised in (Beethoven, Monet, fine wine) along with the "low brow" culture I claim to enjoy because it's "real" (hip-hop, for instance).  It is somewhat of a tradition in hipster culture to do this crossover.  To claim adherence to both ends of the spectrum, anything but "middle brow" - the petit bourgeois crap that is neither real nor aesthetically good - like garden gnomes.

But I've always also had a problem with the hipsters - it's always felt a bit condescending and a bit touristy.  Kinda like a cultural safari: the subjects safe inside their RangeRover gawking at the objects and their quaint little culture of the "real".

In my defense, I like to think that I've situated myself as culturally opposed to pretty much everything and then selective of those cultural objects wherever they are found (and there isn't shit in the middle brow) that match the culture that I wish to create.  Namely, cultural objects which are steeped in revolutionary tradition - so Beethoven and Public Enemy and Strike Anywhere and Johnny Cash all fit together pretty damn well to my ear, even if they don't have a whole lot in common musically.